Defeat unthinkable for Scots in Hong Kong sevens opener

Scotland face Rugby World Cup qualifiers Portugal today in the opening session of the prestigious Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens, knowing that they must win their first game to qualify for Sunday's Cup competition.

The Hong Kong event differs from the other seven tournaments in the IRB World Series in that it is a 24-team competition. The winners of each pool qualify by right for a place in the Cup quarter-finals, the other two sides coming from the best of the second-placed teams, where in this case best' means points difference.

Portugal, currently enjoying an upsurge of interest in rugby after qualifying for the World Cup, have shown themselves to be useful sevens players, not least in twice defeating Scotland this season.

The first occasion was in Dubai after Scotland had lost a player to the sin-bin, and then in Wellington, Portugal came from behind to overtake the Scots in the final few seconds of the Bowl final.

Six of the Portugal side who went to Uruguay for the second leg qualifying match are here for the sevens tournament.

"This is a key game for us" said Scotland coach Stephen Gemmell, whose side plays Sri Lanka and then Fiji tomorrow. "Without being defeatist, we have to assume that Fiji will beat us, but if we could finish second in our pool then we have a chance of qualifying for the Cup competition.

"They Portugal have several pacy players and one or two very physical guys. We have to keep our shape in defence and make sure of our one-on-one tackles," warned Gemmell.

Scotland have had two practice matches this week, against USA and Italy, giving them a chance to bond as a team and also to acclimatise to the warm and humid conditions in Hong Kong, where the temperature has touched 30 degrees.

Gemmell is likely to start with Edinburgh flanker Ross Rennie, who celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday, skipper Scott Forrest and Borders flanker Roddy Grant in the forwards, with Jamie Hunter at scrum-half, Mike Adamson at stand-off, Ben Addison at centre and Max Evans on the wing.

Colin White, the Glasgow and former Stirling flanker could come into the equation and Gemmell is hoping to utilise the skills of Simon Cross. Gemmell believes the policy of picking professional players will pay off.

"I think sevens is vitally important for the development of professional players," he said. "I really want the pro teams to buy into it."

Scotland squad M Adamson, B Addison, C Anderson, S Crombie, S Cross, M Evans, S Forrest, R Grant, G Hogg, J Hunter R Rennie, C White.

This article was originally posted on 30-Mar-2007, 07:15 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 30-Mar-2007, 07:16.